Women are leading the way to a healthier, more nutritious American agriculture

When one of our crop consultant friends gives seminars for farmers, he often points out: "There are two very important people groups you want on your side, not opposing you: Moms in China, and Moms in America."

Nov. 13, 2017 — You can be thankful this Thanksgiving Day that mothers in both nations, and in every other nation too, are demanding safer, more nutritious, toxin-free sources for their food. Here are some examples:

1. The Women, Food & Agriculture Network is celebrating its 20th year of dedicated work "in building an ecological and just food and agricultural system through individual and community power." Check out their website here.

2. You may have seen Successful Farming's series of online features by Gene Johnston, documenting how American mothers are propelling the entire U.S. food marketing system toward healthier foods. It was launched with this cover in February 2016:

Here are some links to features in that very perceptive series. These are subjects covered, not the exact titles to the articles:

3. Today, Moms Across America launched a 50-state campaign to ban glyphosate herbicides. We're posting the full press release, as it contains many links documenting the health issues challenging glyphosate.

Mission Viejo, CA - Moms Across America announces a nationwide campaign to ban glyphosate herbicides in all fifty of the United States. Support from Organic Consumers Association, Institute for Responsible Technology and Thinking Moms Revolution, with millions of supporters collectively, urge state governors to protect their residents and children.

“European Member states, after considering volumes of scientific studies and numerous testimonies by lawyers and researchers, have refused to renew the license for glyphosate. If it is not safe for Europeans, and Malta, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, and Argentina who have banned glyphosate, then we do not want glyphosate in our United States. We urge our governors to take bold steps like the Governor of Arkansas and Missouri did in banning Dicamba, and ban glyphosate herbicides and toxic chemicals immediately.”- Zen Honeycutt, Executive Director of Moms Across America

Glyphosate herbicides or Monsanto'sRoundUp weed killer, the most widely used herbicide in history, has been proven to cause serious harm to life. Glyphosate has contaminated our planet and is now found in our children's urine, mother's milk, our bloodstreams, and our food, beverages, and water.

In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization found that glyphosate “is a probable human carcinogen.”

In July of 2017 the California State Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) added glyphosate to its Prop 65list of known carcinogens.

Glyphosate ban requests are already being considered by Governor Brown of California from the CA Guild. Pesticides including glyphosate have already been banned inConnecticut for use on school and daycare grounds. The Governors of Arkansas and Missouri have already banned Dicamba, proving that statewide action can be taken to protect citizens.

All 50 state governors are being petitioned by moms and supporters through Change.org and local state residents from each state are launching a mail-in campaign today requesting meetings with their governors. The campaign came together in just 5 days after The Doctors aired an episode of the Monsanto lawsuit and the EU members refused to renew glyphosate.

Honeycutt adds, “Now is the time. Our country is in an unaffordable and tragic public health crisis.Toxic chemicals have been shown to contribute to or cause many of these health issues, especially for our children. It’s time for our states to take actions that our EPA is not willing to take. They can, must and we believe, will protect our citizens from irreparable harm. It’s just a matter of which state will be the first to ban glyphosate.”

4. A forthcoming book could have a nationwide impact equal to Rachael Carson's Silent Spring. It will be released December 9, 2017. Its title: What's Making Our Children Sick?

The major source behind the evidence in the book flows from the pediatric practice of Dr. Michelle Perro in California. Part of the promo copy on Amazon reads: "With chronic disorders among American children reaching epidemic levels, hundreds of thousands of parents are desperately seeking solutions to their children’s declining health, often with little medical guidance from the experts. What’s Making Our Children Sick? convincingly explains how agrochemical industrial production and genetic modification of foods is a culprit in this epidemic."

Co-author Vincanne Adams is a professional author of several books. She often writes on crucial issues such as using statistical analysis to evaluate healthy nutritional choices. Here's a link to a PDF page describing the authors and the book.

We've exchanged information with Dr. Perro over the past couple of years. She has carefully documented and proven ways to restore children's health with fresh, whole, organic foods. Renewable Farming is part of an international online network of scientists, growers, health providers and others concerned about health and nutrition. With Dr. Perro's permission, we're publishing below Dr. Perro's memo to our global network of colleagues, describing what she's seeing in her medical practice.

By Dr. Perro Nov. 11, 2017:

The children I see are complex, chronically ill children. I employ many modalities of healing simultaneously to get them well. Families report that when they just switched their diets to organic without any other therapeutic interventions, they get better.

For this group’s information, I can comfortably report on the following abnormal laboratory findings in most of my patients that are ill:

I am now Executive Director of gmoscience.org, a health-focused website backed by science. Claire Robinson is the Editorial Director. We will be coming out with new material in a few weeks, all clinically based, many from my own medical work and case reports.

What I suspect is going on based on what we know is that because of the increased allostatic load of a cumulative amount of toxicants at birth, coupled with on-going toxic insults, decreased nutrients in the food and GM/pesticide soups that the children are ingesting, they are not able to methylate and excrete.

They already have evidence of chronic inflammation at an early age which puts them into a stress mode and up-regulates cortisol. That effect has consequences on altering hormonal function. The GM food is likely causing increased oxidative stress with an increase of free radicals. In young individuals, even small amounts of pesticides, not to mention whatever plastics, flame retardants, etc., are in their food, they cannot clear it. This is coupled with gut inflammation, leakiness, decreased microbiome (which is the first line of defense in detoxification) and a compromised liver (perhaps from the oxidative stress, decreased digestive enzymes, or glyphosate in the bile as written about by Dr. Samsel). They become increasingly toxic, manifested by neurocognitive dysfunction, digestive disruption, autoimmunity, etc. This is a quick, over-simplification, but I am writing to let you know that we physicians are actively thinking about these processes and know how to halt the damage and turn it around.

Through trial and error, I have learned how to treat these children and their families. They get better. It takes a signifiant commitment from the kids themselves, the families and money to buy the many supplements they require, not to mention the organic food.

Thank you all for staying the course, and for the pursuit of organically-grown, non-chemical based food for our children. I am appreciative to every one of the scientists, writers, activists, politicians (and parent and grandparents) on this list who bring forward their piece of the puzzle so we as clinicians can try to sort out how to get children on the road to recovery.

5. Meanwhile in China, mothers are growing more intent on defending their food sources against transgenic and toxic contaminants. We watch "over the shoulder" of Chinese social networks, and see evidence that about 90% of Chinese Moms want foods free of GMOs and glyphosate.